Yet another PT-109 (aka: YaPT-109)

My wife gave me an early Christmas present: the Dumas PT 109 Kit! I'm going to finish my Okie Rebuild first, really... But i couldn't disappoint her by not at least showing SOME interest...

I've read some of the other build logs here for this kit, i hope i can do as well as those. This will be my first complete build from a kit. I wanted to do the PT before a runabout because it gets painted and not stained. So if i mess up anything i can hide my mistakes...

Over all I'm impressed with the kit. As I've seen on other threads, i'll be making some modifications, especially with the armament and running gear. Also the "dash board".

Whenever i see pictures of PT 109 ( the real one, not the one they used at Kennedy's inauguration...) it never has PT 109 painted on the side, only on the Orlikon gun mount and the front cabin. So I'll probably stick with that.

The plan is to go with triple props with exposed drive shafts and triple rudders. I've seen the pros and cons in other threads and i want to make it as original as possible. The speed won't hurt either...

When you look at the pics, remember that none of the parts are cemented yet, except K1 and frame 7 (you glue 2 identical pieces together on each of those to make a thicker piece). Wanted to dry fit everything.

I've noticed that stringer 2 (s2) does not touch the keel (k1) on either side. Is it supposed to so that the two parts can be glued together?

So i was just looking at the pics of of 109 on the Fine Art Models website, as well as some other mailing lists, and it seems that the life raft on the front of the boat was replaced with a 37mm anti-tank gun with the wheels removed.

There were also some other interesting details, like the torpedo tubes were probably either silver or bronze colored and the mast may have been missing but was also probably folded most of the time.

So i was just looking at the pics of of 109 on the Fine Art Models website, as well as some other mailing lists, and it seems that the life raft on the front of the boat was replaced with a 37mm anti-tank gun with the wheels removed.

There were also some other interesting details, like the torpedo tubes were probably either silver or bronze colored and the mast may have been missing but was also probably folded most of the time.

The anti tank gun was lashed to a pair of timbers that were nailed to the deck.

The PT 109 (part of the 1st batch of Elco 80's 103-196) still had the welded steel torpedo tubes, which were painted the same colors as the rest of the boat. PT 188 was the first boat to leave the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the roll off racks. This accounts for the silver or bronze color of the actual torpedos. Earlier boats were retrofitted with the roll off racks as kits became available. Some artists renderings may use silver or bronze to make the welded tube stand out against the green deck and hull.

I got the balsa in the front pretty well sanded, as well as the stringers and butterfly keel.

But i got a little over zealous on one side while doing the stringer and sanded the frames too far.

So what do i do now? Do i add some body/wood filler and reshape? Or do i cement the side in place and extra cement to fill any gap after it dries? For the most part the 2 or 3 frames that i nicked are ok on one side of the stringer and gouged on the other. It was hard to get a picture of that, but if you look at the frame that is in focus you can get an idea.

It's better to fix any problems with the frames now, then wait until you start planking. Take it from me I made that mistake once but I won't be doing that again! I had to go back and use autobody filler to reshape a section that I should have fix before planking.